Giant Drag

Troubadour - May 16, 2009

Live Review by Adam McKibbin

The last time Giant Drag was written about on The Red Alert was January 2006. Then, as now, they were playing a hometown gig at the famed Troubadour. They were attached to Interscope. One of their songs had just played an NFL playoff game out to commercial break. Later that year, singer/guitarist Annie Hardy would make a memorable appearance on a Deftones album ("Pink Cellphone", anyone?). While plenty subversive (more on that in a moment), Hardy and Micah Calabrese had plenty of pop smarts, too. They were pretty clearly on their way. Surveying the LA landscape at the time, the two indie rock bands poised for liftoff seemed to be Silversun Pickups and Giant Drag.

In the years that followed, the Pickups became a semi-mainstream commodity, while Giant Drag essentially disappeared. The dream Interscope deal turned into a tired old industry horror story. Calabrese quit the band, rejoined and quit again. Hardy battled some health problems and took donations and sold stuff on eBay to keep her band afloat.

Finally, some good news: an EP was coming out. Then some bad news: wait, no, maybe it wasn't. A video teaser appeared. A seemingly random show - this show - was announced. Annie's old friend Micah returned to the fold. An eager, relieved crowd turned out to meet them at the Troubadour. True to the band's luck, Hardy had gotten sick just days before.

She powered through. There was some rust, some acknowledged jitters, some dumb ass fans, and a few issues with the sound whenever they'd push the volume to 11. But the quality of the songs - new and old - and the reliably entertaining performance (and stage presence) more than compensated. A fair chunk of Hearts and Unicorns was showcased, starting smartly with the crowd-pleasing "This Isn't It," winding up with "Kevin is Gay" (minus the meowing outro) and highlighted by the propulsive "YFLMD" (aka "You Fuck Like My Dad") and the despairing "My Dick Sux." There was the signature "Wicked Game" cover, a noisy rendition of "Tired Yet" from their early Lemona EP, and a few new songs that really aren't so new, like the sweetly melodic "White Baby," which has kicked around on set lists for a while (including a 2006 bootleg).

Before taking the stage, they unveiled the full video of "Stuff To Live For" - presumably after all the shit she's gone through, Hardy is just glad to be able to put some sort of finished product in front of fans. She gets bonus points for still being able to put a jolt into them; when she drooled coconut syrup at the end of the extremely messy video, it provoked at least one "oh my god" and one "whoa" within earshot. As for the song itself - which was also part of the live set later on - it's a great choice for a single, particularly for those who liked the harder edge of songs like "My Dick Sux." Now they just have to get the damn EP out (apparently there was an accident during mastering).

At one point late in the show, Hardy admitted to her on-again off-again bandmate that it had all been an elaborate ruse to get him in the room and fire him properly. She speculated about what could have been - where would they have been playing if it had all just gone according to plan? The more spacious Palladium? The shiny new Nokia, home to Seal and Yanni concerts? They were farfetched examples used to pass the question off as a joke, but it's one they - and their fans - have surely considered. What would happen to one of L.A.'s best bands if they got a break instead of the short end of the stick? Hopefully time will still tell.